I showed up at the hospital at 7 am Wednesday morning as directed. Lady at the counter looked perplexed and asked me who told me to come there. LOL!
Got in, changed, and IV started without a lot of digging, hallelujah! #miraclesdohappen
The lidocaine worked, I could feel the injections of radioactive schnitzel, but felt no actual pain. Guy with the radioactive stuff showed up with a small locked metal box, brought out the syringe for Dr Pathologist, then immediately locked back up and went away. They inject blisters of radioactive stuff right under the skin 4 or 5 times.
Then it was time to hurry up and wait a while while my body took those toxins to the lymph nodes – exactly as designed. #grateful
During that wait we listened to the Seed and Soil project (YouTube playlist found here) those songs moved and encouraged me. I looked around for Jesus and found him at my right shoulder. What a blessing!
Then Dr Anesthesia came and asked all the questions and asked if we would like him to pray for us… which he did. Then when he realized we were people of faith, the dear man began Theo-babble complete with chapter and verse references. And when he discovered I was a seminary student he listed off a bunch of dead white guy theologians he had read. I told him to look up some Howard Thurman, his cute little Baptist self would love that. LMBO. He kept coming back between patients to talk some more, which was hilarious. He wanted me to tell him what systematic theology textbooks to read that I know from class, instead I told him about my favorite narrative theology book called “In The Shelter: Finding a Home in the World” written by an Irish poet Pedraig O’Tuama that absolutely moves me every time I pick it up with the pure aching beauty of his theological prose. If he were to read that book, it would rock his world. LOL! I may have enjoyed that a bit more than was warranted.
A lovely woman showed up to get me unhooked enough I could go for one last bathroom visit. Turns out she won her wedding cake in a raffle, and my Mom was the one who made it. She said to say “hi” from a Beldor friend who loves my Dad. And she didn’t disappoint- she told me she remembered me when I was “this tall” which is what all the Beldorians say.
Chatting along with the lovely people showing up in the room…
Next thing I know I’m waking through the fog and there are disembodied voices all around and hands touching me out of the darkness. They went and grabbed my Austrian post haste and fading in and out somehow I drank some water and ate some applesauce, pulled some EKG stickers off and put on clothing and somehow magically napped my way home.
My Austrian scooted out to fill the prescriptions while I face planted in the pillows for more napping, no concept of pain whatsoever!
They took out two lymph nodes (the size of kidney beans), the pathologist sliced them super thin looking for visible cancer and found none. I just read the report and it calls both of them “grossly unremarkable” and that’s good news! They will also check them under a microscope and we will get those results in a few days. So far that news is very good, but if some ugly cells show up then it’s still fine. Chemo is a system-wide treatment, so any naughty buggers will be fried.
I also have the chemo port under the skin with incisions where she guided the cord up and over the collar bone and into the vein of blood going into the heart. Today the numbing medication is wearing off and I’m beginning to feel the weight of that thing pulling on my collar bone – but it is not painful thanks to the Ibuprofen.
Lymph node surgery was in the opposite arm pit. Orange skin sanitizer stain abounds. Still had some EK stickers to pull off. The IV sticker on my right hand came off with no bruising and no blood – that nurse was brilliant!!
I’ve been up and around, ate a little, drank a little. Very happy to have good meds, then back to bed.
Somewhere in there we decided we needed to make up the etymology of the word “lymph”. I decided it was because Dr Kraus Lymph discovered the little buggas, he was German – obviously. X decided that he was also a man with a lisp who also walked with a limp, and demonstrated how that would look for our enjoyment – but it turned out to be more of a limp-foot-drag for added effect. So there you have it. We have solved the riddle. It may seem anticlimactic to go consult Ms Google now.
I’ve never had an outpatient surgery that was actually in and out the same day, so our Dr Anesthesia did a great job. #soblessed Of course I was barely awake I was when the cute guy with the wheelchair showed up, but it hardly matters. I was happy to be out of there!
All that to say, the news is good, and somehow given an hour of knife work I am still actually pretty comfortable.
Nap time.
So grateful for so many answered prayers!! Thank each of you so much! #gratitude
Sending love to each of you cool people!
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